


Finally // Beautiful Stranger

by sunflowercathy



Category: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dash and Lily (tv series), Dash is SO in love it's ridiculous, Dash's POV, F/M, Fluff, finale continuation, they are so soft and vulnerable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:02:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowercathy/pseuds/sunflowercathy
Summary: A one shot continuation of what happened on New Year's night - when Lily and Dash finally, finally get it right and come together, they still have a few things unsaid lingering between them. Dash comes to terms with feelings he hadn't experienced before, and how he could make Lily understand them.Or the one where Dash is so gone for Lily, it's kind of unbelievable._____"She giggled, and Dash stared in awe at how she threw her head slightly back, revealing a pair of earrings (probably) made by herself out of tinsel and little bells. Dash was dark, gloom, rain on pavement, pent up trauma from his childhood but she- she was a kaleidoscope of colors, lights, showers of sunlight and sugar, and he had no idea how he had gotten so lucky. Dash wouldn’t, couldn’t dare to call her “his”, but he wanted to so badly it almost hurt. "
Relationships: Dash/Lily
Comments: 9
Kudos: 89





	Finally // Beautiful Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was born out of a desire/frustration for the lack of fanfiction in this fandom, but also because I am so soft for these characters. Please leave me a comment/idea/suggestion/kudos, whatever your thoughts are. I daydreamed about them since I finished the show and I hope you like my version of them.
> 
> Mini playlist for this work
> 
> Phoebe Bridges - Graceland Too  
> Halsey - Finally // Beautiful stranger  
> The Cure - Friday I'm in love  
> Sports - You are the right one

Dash’s idea of what the first day of the year had been turned inside and out that year - in the last few years, he had spent it waking up at Sofia’s or someone else’s house, surrounded by a random assortment of hungover teenagers, including Boomer, much of his time occupied by helping his then girlfriend to clean up discarded streamers and empty bottles after the long, very long New Year’s party. Not this year though. The memory of him and Sofia laughing at the sight of their suffering friends felt years away.

This year he had Lily. He couldn’t believe it, but she was right there when he opened his eyes, between his arms, on his living room couch. A surge of want, and adoration, and shock washed him over in waves as he allowed himself exactly 10 seconds of shameless staring at the girl he had previously known as a beautifully strung-together collection of words. She managed to plunge directly to his frozen-solid heart. He tried to carefully wiggle out of where they were laying, but Lily stirred in her sleep and made a little disgruntled noise. Dash sighed because once again, he felt his heart drop and leap directly into his stomach. Their limbs were so entangled, he wasn’t sure where he ended and she began - it was exactly what he had pictured every night before sleep since they had started writing to each other.

It had been the safe choice, not giving her his number sooner and carrying on passing the notebook along, and it had let him paint himself a portrait of his one choosing, while simultaneously imagining himself his own version of Lily, one that had her wonderful cursive writing flowing through her veins. It had almost broken them, too, before they even began, and he was well aware that he would have hated himself enormously if he hadn’t decided to act the day before. At that thought, he tightened his hold of her, a little drunk on how much she smelled like vanilla and how warm she was. But this, this is what he craved - the moment Dash realized, somewhere deep and hidden even from himself, that he was falling in love - he ached for more than paper and ink. He wanted to see what she looked like, to see how their hands would fit, to flirt awkwardly by tucking a strand of hair behind her ear like in all those cliche movies. 

He tried again to get up, this time successfully, Lily rolling herself to the side into a bundle. Plenty of movies and songs had informed him about this - how your first love was so powerful, it felt like your whole being was taken apart and sewn back together in such a way that made room for this new person in your heart. But the real thing - the feeling taking over him right now, more akin to what he imagined being dipped into honey felt like, was incomparable, and so new to his sardonic, cynical self, it almost scared him. He needed a moment to collect himself, to think - every time his eyes caught the soft line of her figure sleeping (on his couch!) , a stupid smile rose up again on his face. If he could have seen himself, the mocking wouldn’t have ever stopped, he was sure.

He grabbed the notebook from where it was discarded on the floor, and stepped outside on his balcony, opening it and beginning to write, his mind inadvertently reliving , again and again, the previous night.  
“Dear Lily,  
Here’s how I know you must be special - you managed to make a guy with a pitch black void for a heart fall so hard that he wakes up on the first of January just to write to you about it, even if you are already in the next room. You made me like one of those insufferable guys that rents out billboards to profess their love in the tackiest way, while their whole families are watching. I might even slightly like Christmas now, that’s how bad it is,...”

______________

They had to wait a half an hour before Lily’s cousin agreed to leave whatever party he was attending and come lock them out of The Strand - a half an hour they had spent doing little else besides kissing, despite having their favorite bookstore as their personal playground. They had tried, really, Dash had grabbed her hand to walk through the more obscure aisles where customers weren’t usually allowed, yet they still managed, somehow, to end up perched up besides one of the bookshelves - he knew very well how, yet he wouldn’t have admitted it. 

It wasn’t like anything else in his life so far- kissing Lily. It felt old and new at the same time, and it awakened something in him, a sort of jolt of electricity that zapped him from his head to the tip of his fingers, buried deep into Lily’s soft hair. It was this physical reminder that she wasn’t the girl he had imagined in their notebook, she was so much better, real and flawed and perfect. They somehow fit together so well, and he loved how she was smaller than him and he had to slouch in order to reach her properly.

“You know,” she said, a faint laugh in her voice, “you’re supposed to stop every once in a while in order to assure you’re both breathing properly’. They were in the limited edition part of the bookstore, her perched up on one of the desks, and him towering over her. Her observation came with a full-faced grin, which made him kiss her again. “I think those rules are stupid, and they should make better ones.”

He stopped to look at her expression, and try to read it. Mirroring him, she radiated joy, in a way that blinded him almost, but there was more - like she was holding back from saying, from doing something.”What’s wrong?” Dash asked, and stepped back slightly, worried he was pushing her . “Was I.. is this too much?”

Lily frantically shook her head “No ,I love making out with you, it’s not that.” Dash let out a laugh, amused by her attempts to correct herself, only digging herself deeper. “I mean, not in that way, uhh, it’s just that.” She jumped up from where she was staying, ignoring the look on Dash’s face, and checking her phone. “My cousin will be here in five minutes. My parents managed to make their flight, and my grandfather is celebrating New Year at my aunt’s house - and well, I thought..”

Dash knew what she meant, even if she was too shy to say it out loud. He wanted more time with her too - now that they had managed to pull themselves together, that’s all he wanted.He knew Lily, he was sure of it - her purest essence had been laid out between them in those pages - but he wanted to get to know know her -how her eyes crinkled when she laughed sincerely, how she would tremble if he were to put his hands on her waist, if her expression would become sombre if they ever came around to talking about their childhoods. He took her hands into his, and smiled reassuringly. “I’m alone at home, let’s go to my place. I still have so much I want to tell you.”

His whole chest lit on fire when she nodded, excited, almost jumping up and down like a little kid.  
________

It was a bit awkward once they arrived at his mom’s apartment, not quite sure yet how to navigate this new dynamic they had. After they took off their coats, Dash showed her around, shyly rushing through when they got to his room, while she made sounds of surprise and admiration at the impressive amount of books he had, or the posters his mother had framed in the living room. They ended up on the couch,a tin of her cookies between them, a safe distance separating them. He was drawing a blank - his mind had been in an adrenaline rush for the past hours, frenzied by a whirlwind of questions and things he had to tell her, and yet - he was completely silent now, only able to stare at her lips. 

“So, Dash.” She solemnly stated, breaking the charged silence floating above them.  
“So, Lily” He mirrored. Completely still, he could still feel his pulse beating out of his chest - and huh, that was new. A lot of what Lily made him feel was completely new, he discovered with a slightly guilty conscience, very aware that he had been in a relationship before (not like this, though).

“First of all, I’m very sorry for what was your first proper impression of me. That wasn’t uh, my proudest moment.” Dash winced at that particular memory - he had been running around town for what felt like hours, so sure and so determined this was it -he was finally going to meet Her, the girl who had listened and understood, really understood him like no other. Only to find her drunk, kissing Thybault of all people - that jerk.   
“Let’s just say, that wasn’t my happiest moment. When I saw you two,I experienced this weird, sharp emotion that was quite unfamiliar to me, some sort of frustration mixed with anger.”

Dash played dumb on purpose,which made Lily smirk. “Dash, were you by any chance jealous?”

The boy removed the tin of cookies from between them and locked their hands together. He raised his eyebrows at her question “Is that what that was? I had no idea. When he asked me if I’m trying to steal ‘his’ girl, I had this urge to punch his lights out, and I’ve never punched someone before. Huh,curious.”  
She giggled, and Dash stared in awe at how she threw her head slightly back, revealing a pair of earrings (probably) made by herself out of tinsel and little bells. Dash was dark, gloom, rain on pavement, pent up trauma from his childhood but she- she was a kaleidoscope of colors, lights, showers of sunlight and sugar, and he had no idea how he had gotten so lucky. Dash wouldn’t, couldn’t dare to call her “his”, but he wanted to so badly it almost hurt. 

“How come you changed his mind?” The air in the room felt heavier, all of a sudden, like all the oxygen had been sucked out of it. This- this was the point where Dash both wanted to but was also afraid to get to. He had spilled his heart onto that letter, yes, but this was different. Now they were really in front of one another, so close he could feel her breath on his face, and her hands shiver in his. Her question was punctuated with a slight stutter, and her whole being was a raw nerve, anxious to hear him answer but also trying to brush it off. Dash decided to face it face on.

“Listen, I’m really sorry about before. I almost gave up on us - and thank God I got my head out of my ass and my friends yelled at me and I ended up coming to my senses.” Here Lily smiled - he had told her briefly about the Jonas Brothers concert and how all of his friends helped him .   
“I realized me pretending like we had made each other up like imaginary friends in that notebook was just me being scared. I know you - you are brave, and kind, and you radiate this immense light that everyone in your life is drawn to. I told myself I will end this game and stop writing and I’d go back to my life and yet, I couldn’t.”  
Dash took a breath, and when he looked up from the spot where he was staring at, he found Lily earnestly looking at him, mouth slightly open, eyes watering. He smiled, processing everything he was saying as he was saying it.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I’d wonder if you were okay, if the whole thing with your family made you lose sleep. If you were thinking about me, too.” Dash smiled shyly when he saw that she nodded. “Good,good. Because I was a wreck -pretty pathetic, you should have seen me. I knew you were good and I just thought, I’d disappoint you. We’d meet again and I would be wrong, wrong for you and completely incompatible with what you had imagined. But I’m kind of weak for you, so yeah. I had to at least try.”

Dash sighed deeply, ending his monologue with an expression that read ‘I’m all yours, you can do whatever you want now’. It was late, and sleep made her whole being soft, the boy finding himself so endeared by the sight of her barely keeping her eyes together and yet still listening to him with everything she had. Dash wanted to kiss her,again,and that sung in his brain on a constant loop, like a stuck melody.  
“Dash, I, uhm, I”  
He knew what she meant. “I know, Lils. I’m.. that with you too. We don’t have to say it just yet. I mean, I already did, kind of, more like wrote it. Anyways, the point is that we don’t have to rush.”  
The nickname and everything else had slipped out of his mouth before he could think more of it, before processing what he was saying - what if she didn’t mean she was in love , what he had misread it and made himself look completely ridiculous.

Lily closed the little space between them, her voice now a low whisper. “Good. Now, can we please kiss again, and then go to sleep?” Her hand was soft and warm on his cheek, and Dash couldn’t help but smile before leaning in .  
”Yes,please. Honestly,It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past hour.”


End file.
